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inspirational

A little while back I received the most beautiful tulips in a vase as a present. I nurtured these tulips to the best of my abilities, but just like most flowers – well maybe just in my home – they have an expiration date. I decided to reuse and recycle the vase and the rocks at the bottom to build myself a new little flower garden, but this time with succulents which can survive much easier for longer!

Before: The beautiful tulips

The steps of building your succulent garden

Step 1:

Place rocks at the bottom of the vase. This vase doesn’t have holes at the bottom to help drain the excess water and these rocks will help to absorb some of the water.

Step 2:

Wet the potting soil. It shouldn’t be drenched in water, just moist enough to keep the soon planted succulents alive.

Add potting soil onto the rocks and then cover it with the fine river sand. The sand is optional, I just like the beige/white colour of the sand better than the look of the brownish rough potting soil. It all depends on your style.

Step 3:

Make little holes in the soil and plant the succulents. You will see some of mine is still very small. They were little off-springs of the bigger one you’ll see in there. Succulents grow very easily so you are more than welcome to plant mature succulents but I know these babies will grow quickly and fill the space.

Step 4:

Place your little succulent garden where you see fit and enjoy looking at it everyday and see how it grows. Especially living in the city it is one way of at least feeling a bit closer to nature…

Psalm1:1-6

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinner nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

It took me years to paint this tree as it is now and not because it took so long to paint it, but because I kept on changing it. We’ve been joking that this is a seasonal tree. It started off as a black and white tree, then it grew green leaves and grass whereafter the sun started setting on it…and a fence were built. Probably one of these days it will grow blossoms for Spring😊

After looking at this painting for a while the thaught came to mind that our lives are also like this tree. We go through different seasons in life and some may not be so much ‘fun’…thats maybe your winter season where it feels like everything is ‘dying’ around you. Anything and everything that can go wrong will! BUT remember its only a season and will pass!! Even in nature there’s a good reason for winter just like our “winters” also have a good reason. We might just not understand the reason yet. What I have personally learnt about these difficult times in our lives are to go and ask God what the lesson is you need to learn and sometimes the quicker we learn the lesson the sooner Spring can come. During one of my ‘Winter’ seasons a friend gave me this scripture…

James 1:2-4

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trails of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

When we persevere through our troubled times we will grow stronger, like it says in Psalm 1, we will prosper and bear fruit. As soon as we enter into Spring again we can then share our good fruit with the people around us who’s in their ‘Winter’ season. By helping others and remembering to be thankful when our troubled times ended, our roots can then grow even deeper and we can grow so much stronger that the next time Winter comes again..and it will…we will be able to handle it better than the previous time and who knows, maybe it won’t be as cold as the previous one❄☺

I am sitting here ready to start blogging but suddenly the moment is so big I don’t know where to start. My interests cover quite a few areas…as you will still notice 😉 … and I’m one of those not so patient people who wants to share everything immediately! Since that is not possible, I thought it will be appropriate for me to start with a devotional post. I will still share many creative ideas of all sorts and show you projects I tackle in our house, but the first post I want to dedicate to my Heavenly Father.

JOY

Every 1st of January each year, instead of attempting a new years resolution – can you still remember yours 😉 – I pray and ask God for a word and picture for that year. This year I received the word JOY and the picture of a bird (FYI Inyoni means birds in Zulu.) When we look at the word joy we think of good times and laughter. Which is not wrong but if we read in the Bible it tells us to rejoice in good and bad times. While Paul was in jail he wrote in Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again; Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard you hearts and you minds in Christ Jesus.”

The fact of the matter is that ALL of us goes through trails. Sometimes we feel that the trail to non-trail ratio is 9:1! But if we fall into self pity and anger for each of these ‘trails’ or ‘storms’ in our life, we are going to be very unhappy people. In Proverbs 15:15 (God’s Word translation) it says: “Every day is a terrible day for a miserable person, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.” If we can learn to find joy within these difficult times we grow stronger as a person, we grow in faith but we also start enjoying life more! And other people enjoy it a lot more to be around us!!

Finding your joy in the Lord doesn’t mean we need to ignore all the bad stuff and pretend it’s not there, we can share these feelings with Him. I have cried tons of tears before the Lord and never once have I got up without the most amazing feeling of peace that “everything will be ok…” He is there to help us, but we need to reach out to Him.

How can we find our joy in the Lord?

Be thankful

Use your talents – I definitely find my joy while I’m painting, or sewing or being creative in a way.

Be obedient to God’s Word

Care for others – one of the most effective ways of lifting your spirits, is to do something for someone else without expecting anything in return!!!

Joy is a gift God gives us everyday..it is up to us if we are going to open this gift and enjoy it or bury it under all of our negativity. I hope and pray that you will choose to open it!!!